Aspecto de la exposición.L ondres, Inglaterra. Viernes, 6 de octubre de 2006 (BBC).- En China se realizó la primera exposición de fotos tomadas exclusivamente con teléfonos celulares y de un solo artista.
Las obras le pertenecen al artista Kong Ming, según relevó el portal chino sinchew-i.com.
Las 100 fotos expuestas fueron seleccionadas de un total de 4.000 que Mong tomó en los últimos 10 meses con sus celulares Sony Ericsson y Alcatel.
Mong retrata en ellas escenas de su vida diaria en la ciudad oriental de Shangai, como pasajeros en el metro, gatos callejeros o basura en el piso.
"Muchos fotógrafos tratan de expresar las características de Shangai de una manera bastante tradicional. En sus imágenes, aparece como una metrópoli con estilos de vida muy extravagante y a la moda", opinó Ming.
Shangai confidencial
"En mis fotos quiero revelar el otro lado de la ciudad: son detalles muy triviales y comunes, pero a la mayoría de la gente le recuerda algunos momentos especiales de su vida".
Para evitar violar la intimidad de otras personas, los únicos rostros reconocibles son los de sus padres.
"Para algunos, las fotos tomadas con el móvil suponen un tipo de comportamiento inmoral", indicó Ming y explicó que con su exposición busca "demostrar que las ideas sobre la fotografías con celulares están equivocadas".
Mong contó que algunos medios locales fueron a su exposición tratando de encontrar algo que pueda violar la privacidad de las personas.
"Pero fracasaron. No creo que ninguna de estas fotos violen la privacidad de nadie".
Un abogado de Shangai corroboró que semejante exposición de fotos no viola ningún derecho.
"La exhibición se realiza en un lugar público y es de entrada libre, lo que prueba que el fotógrafo no busca lucrar", dijo el abogado Si WeiJiang.
A CONTINUACION LA NOTA DEL AGENCIA CHINA:
There are many uses for mobile phones other than just calling people.
Now, the growing trend of taking pictures with them can be seen in an exhibition in Shanghai.
The event features the work of Kong Ming, who is displaying various photos he took in his daily life with his mobile phones. It is the first solo exhibition of mobile phone photography in China.
More than 100 photos were displayed at the exhibition last month, all taken by Kong with his two mobile phones in the last 10 months.
"Actually, I did not plan to launch such an exhibition when I started to use my mobile phone to take pictures," Kong said.
He explained he just wanted to record how he felt about his life with his mobile phones at first. He used two phones--a Sony Ericsson and an Alcatel--to take more than 4,000 photos during the period.
Lin Lu, a renowned photographer and Kong's photography teacher when he was at college, encouraged him to hold the exhibition after he saw the photos.
"Before I ran this solo exhibition,some people had already displayed their pictures taken by mobile phones in some exhibitions--but there was no such solo exhibition," Kong said.
All the pictures displayed at the exhibition are of trivial things he saw in his life--dozing passengers on a metro train, stray cats on street corners, garbage on roads and a range of other things.
"Many photographers want to express the characteristics of Shanghai in a rather traditional way: in their pictures, Shanghai is a metropolis with very fashionable and extravagant lifestyles. In my pictures, I wanted to reveal another side of this city--they are very trivial and ordinary, but they remind most ordinary people of some special moments in their lives," Kong explained.
Because some strangers' faces feature in some of his pictures, Kong was very cautious about violating people's right to privacy.
"It's common for a photographer to take snapshots of strangers. But to avoid other people's worries, I did not display too many portraits of strangers in the exhibition," he said.
"Some local media came to my exhibition and tried to find something that could be considered as evidence for violating other people's right to privacy, but they failed.I don't think these pictures violate anybody's rights."
In fact, it is quite difficult to clearly see the faces of people in the pictures, as they are blurred.
"Actually, the only two faces visitors can clearly see are my parents," Kong said.
However, he said he was aware that holding the exhibtion could lead to debate and concern over the use of mobile phones to take pictures.
"For some people, snapshots taken by mobile phones indicate some kind of immoral behaviour--some would like think that taking snapshots with mobile phones is just peeping at other people's private parts of their bodies. But when they come to my exhibition, they will be rather disappointed to find that what I have done is totally different from what they thought," Kong added.
"I want to prove that some people's ideas about mobile phone photography are wrong by my exhibition."
Si WeiJiang, a lawyer in Shanghai, confirmed that Kong's exhibition does not violate any privacy rights.
"The exhibition is carried out in a public space and is free for the public--those two things show that the photographer does not want to use other people's snapshots to make profits for himself. And those pictures were taken in public areas, so the photographer did not disturb other people's private lives when he was taking pictures. In these two senses, the photographer and his exhibition have nothing to do with any violation of the right to privacy," Si said.
Si added people should clearly understand the difference between immoral peeping and artistic work.
On the message board for the exhibition,hundreds of people have expressed their praise for the photos and some were deeply moved by them. Visitors have hailed from a range of countries, including France and Japan.
Lu Yuanming, a renowned artist and photographer, also congratulated Kong on the message board.Lin Lu, the curator for Kong's exhibition, said the event highlighted a new way of showing the world.
"With the fast-developing technologies, people have found a new way to observe the world they live in," he said. (By Xu Jitao, China Daily/ANN)
